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Ronnie Coleman: Tales of the Unexpected
Getting ripped on vodka, the dangers of donating sperm & other storiesEight-time (1998-2005) Mr. Olympia Ronnie is a hoot at interviews. Here are a few snippets from past conversations.
PETER McGOUGH: At the 1997 Olympia you were ninth, and when doubts arose as to whether Dorian Yates would defend the title, the only ones seen as probable successors were Nasser El Sonbaty, Kevin Levrone, Shawn Ray and the most favored guy Flex Wheeler. You were never mentioned, but in the May contests of 1998 you came in bigger and harder and beat Levrone in two out of three contests. In previewing the 1998 Olympia I added you to that list of four as someone who could win the Olympia. I wrote, “With Flex Wheeler as the apparent popular choice to be the next Mr. O, Coleman has one clear advantage over the other leading contenders. He is the only one who can take on and beat Wheeler in a back double biceps comparison.”
RONNIE COLEMAN: Hey, Peter, you ain’t as dumb as you look.
Nobody could be that dumb Ronnie. Any road up, in early ’98 you started to work with Chad Nicholls. Was that move fundamental to your success?The improvement in 1998 was totally to do with Chad. He changed my diet and training philosophy. He got me doing a whole lot more cardio. From an hour a day he upped it to two hours a day. Which was a lot for me to fit in because I was still working full time as a police officer. He increased my protein intake substantially and cut back on carbs. He changed everything so much it made me think that up to that point I’d been doing everything wrong. I didn’t realize how little I knew. In fact the 1998 Olympia was the first time, due to Chad’s guidance, that I’d really nailed down the carb loading process. Before Chad I was just kidding myself that I knew what I was doing.
When you started to work with Chad did he say you could be Mr. Olympia? No he never did. I guess maybe because he was looking after Flex and Nasser (who finished second and third at the ’98 Olympia) [Laughs] He couldn’t be telling all three of us we were going to win.
Talking about sudden improvement, tell me about the help Kevin Levrone gave you at the 1997 Russian Grand Prix?There were seven contests on that tour and Kevin won the first six. I had one third, one fourth, two fifths, a sixth and a seventh. I just couldn’t get things right. Now when I was in college I always wanted to be as smart as I could be. So I used to figure out who was the smartest in the class, hang with them and try to learn from them. Kevin had won six shows on the bounce so the night before the last one in Russia I asked him how he was staying hard and ripped throughout this grueling tour. He said come to my room. We went and he poured out half a cup of cold coffee. Then he took a bottle of Vodka out of his fridge, and filled the rest of the coffee cup with it and told me to drink it. You know how Kevin likes to fool around, so I figured he was joking and started laughing. He says, “No man, drink it – this is how I get ripped.” He’s looking at me dead serious so I did what anybody would do when a guy who’s won six in a row tells you to do something – I drank the damn thing. Well, all that night and the next day I was in and out of the bathroom passing water. At the contest I was shredded and dry as hell and got first place ahead of Kevin.
So from then on, did you keep having the pre-contest Vodka concoction? No, no, no. By the time of my next contest I had hooked up with Chad and he wasn’t talking no Vodka.
Who’s the greatest bodybuilder you ever competed against? Flex [Wheeler]. He had that combination of full muscle bellies, shape, condition and mass. He’s like the bodybuilder’s bodybuilder.
Of all the guys you competed against who were you closest to? Again it would be Flex by quite a distance. Not many people know it but Flex taught me a lot about the sport of bodybuilding. Again it goes back to what I said earlier about getting smarter by learning from the smartest guy in the class. After a couple of years of being a pro I thought here’s Flex winning all these shows, he must know a thing a or two about this game. So I asked him certain things and he gave me information that helped me get better. He was helpful in a way that took me from top six to winning contests. He helped me win that first Olympia. When he got working with Chad Nicholls I asked him who is this guy, how is he helping you? Flex explained and gave me Chad’s phone number and said call him. I’m sure at the time Flex wasn’t thinking, Now wait a minute I give this guy all this help and he ends up taking the Olympia ahead of me. I guess he didn’t see me as a threat until it was too late. He never said he regretted giving me the info. It’s a bit like Jay Cutler and Phil Heath. Phil was the student who eventually beat his teacher.
What was your greatest moment on a bodybuilding stage?That’s easy. Winning my first Olympia in 1998 at Madison Square Garden. Going into the show my goal was to make top five. The previous year I had finished ninth, and my best at the Olympia had been sixth in 1996, so I figured top five was possible especially when Dorian announced he wouldn’t defend his title. [Laughs] That was the coolest thing ever ‘cos I thought that’s one less to worry about, maybe I’ll move up a spot. I made the posedown and when they called Chris Cormier in sixth, I was elated because I had fifth at least. Then they called out fifth through third [Shawn Ray, Kevin Levrone, Nasser El Sonbaty respectively] and I was left standing there with Flex Wheeler. I thought, Dang this is the greatest day of my life – I got second at the Olympia! I was as proud as can be. When they called me as the winner I just went into shock. I can’t remember hitting the deck and lying there facedown blubbing, or Flex kneeling down to talk into my ear and then trying to get me up. I have no recollection of Chris Cormier attempting to get me to my feet, or Vickie Gates [Ronnie’s girlfriend at that time] coming onstage and finally getting me up. I don’t remember any of that – I only know those things happened by seeing videos later on. When I thought I was second I felt it was the greatest day of my life, but winning …….?
So is there a worst non-bodybuilding moment in your life?There is. There was a woman who lived in Los Angeles who I’d been a friend with for 15 years. In 2006 she wanted to have a baby for herself and asked me to be the father and go through the act of conception. I said, No we can’t do that we’re just friends. She then said she’d do it through a sperm bank. I said Hell, if you’re gonna go that route, I’ll go to the sperm bank and do it that way. In June 2007 She had triplets and six months later she served me with child support papers. She made out that we’d had a physical relationship; made her pregnant and we planned to marry. Man I was just doing her a favor. I challenged it and in April 2008 the court ruled against me. And I was forced to pay child support for two of the children [a few months after being born the third one died]. I appealed and it took until April of 2012 for the hearing to take place. This time I won. Next day TV and radio stations were knocking on my door, I said, “C’mon in fellas, I’ll tell you the full story”. I learned a valuable lesson: Never donate sperm.
There’s an MD cover line if ever I saw on. Can’t top that Ronnie – ‘til the next time my friend.
